Motherhood
Sir: Auberon Waugh's rather pessimistic article on the baby famine (6 May) raised some interesting points about our whole approach to childbirth.
Would it not help if mothers other than those in obvious danger be encouraged to have children at home especially now that mobile medical care etc is readily available, thus reducing the pressure on available hospital beds? In a sophisticated country such as Holland with a comparatively high-density population I understand that home births are actually in the majority; would it be too naïve to hope that this might help to generate an atmosphere in which the mother is relaxed and separated from the whole ghastly set-up which Mr Waugh describes in such gruesome detail?
Thus when it comes to breast-feeding, the poor mother (we hope) might be free to practise or not this utterly natural method of feeding, in itself an ironic choice of current fad for the ladies of Lesbos whose interference in contrast is so clearly unnatural.
The saddest comment of all is that anyone in this socialist utopian age of reason should have to plead for the rights of a mother, not to mention the host of unborn children who are prevented from even entering this world because it is convenient to abort just as it is fashionable to interfere. Jonathan Howarth Matching Vicarage, Harlow, Essex
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